Foreign Service Institute German Basic Course

1. In the following English sentences the pronouns are in bold.
Note their forms.

I know him and he knows me. Do you know her? She knows you.

Most English pronouns have two different forms: I-me, he-him, she-her,
etc. Some, like the pronouns you and it, have only one form however.

2. Note the forms of the German pronouns in the following sentences.

Verstehen Sie mich? Do you understand me?
Ja, ich verstehe Sie gut. Yes, I understand you well.
Wie geht es Ihnen? How goes it with regard to you? (How are you?)Er spricht
englisch mit mir. He speaks English with me.

Some German pronouns have two different forms, like Sie and Ihnen above.
Many German pronouns however have three different forms like ich, mich,
and mir above.

3. The following table gives the forms of the most common German pronouns:

I

we

he

it

she

they

you

who?

what?

Nominative

ich

wir

er

es

sie

sie

Sie

wer

was

Accusative

mich

uns

ihn

es

sie

sie

Sie

wen

was

Dative

mir

uns

ihm

ihm

ihr

ihnen

Ihnen

wem

---

me

us

him

it

her

them

you

whom?

what?

The English forms at the top of the table correspond to the
set of German forms for the Nominative. Those at the bottom of the table
correspond to the German forms for the Accusative and Dative.
The pronouns wer and was are used only in questions. The pronouns for
familiar address, du and ihr, will be taken up later.

II. Functions

1. The NOMINATIVE form: In German, as in English, the basic sentence
structure is an ACTOR-ACTION pattern: somebody doing something. The ACTOR
is called the SUBJECT of the sentence, and in German a pronoun designating
the ACTOR always has the NOMINATIVE form.

2. The ACCUSATIVE form: In many sentences in both English and German
there is another element, the GOAL or OBJECT of the action, the person
or thing toward which the action is aimed. In German a pronoun designating
the OBJECT of an action is usually in the ACCUSATIVE form.

3. The DATIVE form: The third form of the German pronoun is used to
designate the INTERESTED BYSTANDER, the person to whom or for whom or
with regard to whom the action of the sentence is being performed. In
some cases this is referred to as the INDIRECT OBJECT.

Können Sie mir seine Adresse geben? Can you give me his address?
Sie müssen ihm Ihren Pass zeigen. You have to show your passport
to him.
Wie geht es Ihnen? How are you? (How goes it with-regard-to-you?)
Gefällt es Ihnen in München? Do you like it in Munich? (Is
it pleasing to you in Munich?)
Der Koffer gehört mir nicht. The suitcase doesn't belong to me.

4. Another use of the DATIVE form is illustrated by the following sentences
you have learned:

Sprechen Sie englisch mit ihr? Do you speak English
with her?
Ich fahre oft mit ihm nach Hause. I often ride home
with him.

The DATIVE forms ihr and ihm are used here because they follow the word
mit, and that's all there is to it. Any pronoun that follows mit has
the DATIVE form, always and without fall. This has nothing to do with
the INTERESTED BYSTANDER usage; it's something entirely different.

B. The Principle of Substitution

1. Languages, like automoblles, are made up of replaceable parts; but
the part you substitute must fit the frame into which it is put. For
example, in the frame Er kennt mich 'He knows me', the Accusative form
mich may be replaced only by other Accusative forms -- that is, forms
from the same horizontal line in the table of pronoun forms as mich,
the line labeled 'ACCUSATIVE forms.'

Er kennt mich.
uns
ihn
es
sie
sie
Sie
wen?

He knows me.
us
him
it
her
them
you
who (m)?

2. Similarly, Dative forms must be replaced by other Dative forms, and
Nominative forms by other Nominative forms.

Ich gehe oft ins Kino
mit ihr
ihm
ihnen

Kennen Sie Herrn Becker?
wir
sie

I often go to the movies
with her.
him
them

Do you know Mr. Becker ?
we
they

C. Verb Forms & Functions: The Present

I. Forms.

1. In German, and in English, when you substitute one Nominative form
for
another, that is, change the SUBJECT in a sentence, you sometimes have
to change the form of the verb as well. The subject and the verb have
to fit together. Note the following English forms:

I, you, we, they

sing

do

(no ending)

he, she, it

sings

does

(ending -s)

2. All but a very few German verbs have the following forms:

ich

komme

gebe

(-e ending)

er, es, sie

kommt

gibt

(-t ending)

wir, sie (they), Sie

kommen

geben

(-en ending)

Note that German verbs have a special form with the pronoun ich. Otherwise
the pronouns and verbs are grouped as they are in English; er, es, sie
occur with one verb form just as 'he, it and she' and wir, sie, Sie
with another verb form just as 'we, they, you.' Notice that the vowel
in the STEM of geben appears as i in the er-form: er gibt. This is something
like the English says or does [sez, duz versus say or do], except that
in German the vowel-change is shown even more clearly in the writing
system. There are several verbs in German that have this kind of irregular
er-form, but unfortunately there is no simple way of determining which
verbs they are. They are not very numerous however, and we'll point them
out to you as we encounter them.

3. Two German verbs you have encountered show a very slight modification
in the er-form. They are arbeiten and kosten.

er, es, sie arbeitet (connecting vowel -e- and ending -t)

After a -t- (or a -d) a connecting vowel -e- occurs before the
ending
-t so that the ending is heard distinctly.

4. We have four verbs so far that exhibit the following pattern:

ich
er
es
sie

kann

darf

muss

will

(no ending)

wir
sie
Sie

können

dürfen

müssen

wollen

(ending -en)

There are three more verbs with the same pattern, making a total of
seven in all. Notice that the English equivalents of the verbs listed
above have no-s ending in the he form: He can, he may, he must, and he
will
(in the sense of he insists.)

5. The following forms of haben "to have", sein "to be" and
möchte(n) "would like to" complete the inventory:

ich
er, es, sie
wir, sie, Sie

habe
hat
haben

bin
ist
sind

möchte
möchte
möchten

The patterns of the first two of these verbs are unique and are found
in no other German verbs. The forms möchte and möchten are
special forms which we will deal with somewhat later.

6. Here is a table of verb forms:

A

B

(7)

(1)

(1)

special forms

ich

komme

treffe

kann

habe

bin

möchte

er, sie, es

kommt

trifft

hat

ist

wir, sie, Sie

kommen

treffen

können

haben

sind

möchten

All verbs in German follow pattern A or pattern B except the nine indicated
in the table and one more that is still to come.

II. Functions.

1. English uses a verb form with the ending -ing very freely: he's
singing.
we're waiting, it's raining. German has no corresponding form and uses
the simple form of the verb for such expresssions.

he gives
he's giving
he does give

er gibt

is he giving?
does he give?

gibt er?

2. For COMMANDS, German uses the verb form with the ending -en, followed
by
the pronoun Sie. The German form is like Biblical English: 'Go ye into
all the world, and preach the gospel...‘

3. Two verb forms can be used together in German or in English as a VERB
PHRASE. Although German doesn't have verb phrases like is going or does
believe, it has others, as follows:

Ich möchte gern wasser haben. I'd like to have water.
Können Sie mich gut verstehen? Can you understand me well?
Darf ich Ihren Pass sehen? May I see your passport?
Sie müssen zum Zoll gehen. You have to go to the customs office.

The second part of the German verb phrase comes at the end of the sentence,
and is called the INFINITIVE. It is the form with the ending -en but
it never has a subject and is unaffected by any change of subject: Ich
kann gehen. Wir können gehen. There is only one irregular infinitive
in German: sein 'to be'; the infinitive of every other verb is the same
as the wir-form.

III. List of verbs in units 1 and 2:

1. Pattern A

arbeite
arbeitet
arbeiten

gehöre
gehört
gehören

besuche
besucht
besuchen

glaube
glaubt
glauben

bleibe
bleibt
bleiben

heiße
heißt
heißen

gehe
geht
gehen

kenne
kennt
kennen

komme
kommt
kommen

(koste)
kostet
kosten

sage
sagt
sagen

verstehe
versteht
verstehen

wohne
wohnt
wohnen

zeige
zeigt
zeigen

Pattern B:

esse
isst
essen

gebe
gibt
geben

sehe
sieht
sehen

spreche
spricht
sprechen

treffe
trifft
treffen

fahre
fährt
fahren

gefalle
gefällt
gefallen

D. Hin and her

Wo wohnen Sie? Where do you live?
Wo kommen Sie her? Where do you come from?
Wo gehen Sie hin? Where are you going (to)?

1. Wo by itself means 'where?' in the sense of 'in what place?'. To
give it the meaning 'where from?' the little word her is added; to give
it the meaning 'where to?' the little word hin is added.

2. The position of hin and her is usually at the end of the sentence
or question. They may occur alternately however at the beginning after
wo. The writing system joins hin and her to the preceding question word
or
adverb. Woher? 'Where from?'; Wohin? 'Where to?'; dahin, dorthin 'to
there'